Letters to the Editor 07-28-13

Sunday

Jul 28, 2013 at 5:27 AMJul 29, 2013 at 5:28 AM

Return to nature

A recent editorial expressed the opinion that a proposal to eliminate bicycle, horse and raft rentals from Yosemite Valley was "outrageous" and "lunacy." The conclusion was that "environmental extremists... seem to think that our natural wonders should be observed from a distance as if they were still paintings." How is swimming in a motel pool or ice skating in a parking lot observing Yosemite up close?

Yosemite, particularly the very small percentage of the park which is Yosemite Valley, is one of the natural wonders of the world, and it is only a few hours away. The massive glacially sculpted cliffs, the towering waterfalls, stately forests and peaceful meadows were set aside by an act of Congress to be preserved and protected for all generations to enjoy. Six generations of my own family have visited Yosemite, dating back to my great-great-aunt in 1906.

Yosemite is unique in all the world and needs no enhancements to attract visitors. Yes, I understand that at one time visitors came to see the beauty of the park, but also wanted more traditional resort activities, such as horseback riding, swimming, ice skating and floating down the river. But even with my first visit in 1959, most of the horse rentals were "nose to tail" one or two hour excursions that were little more than pony rides.

I have bicycled around the valley floor several times, once with a rental and several times with my own bike. And honestly, I was so busy watching for traffic and where I was going that I saw little of the sights that were all around me. I loved swimming when I was younger. But a swimming pool at a motel or ice skating on an artificially frozen ice rink? Does that really enhance anyone's experience of Yosemite's natural beauty?

Yosemite is not an amusement park or a city recreation park. There are pools, bike trails and ice skating aplenty in our own areas and at resorts. And there are many excellent stables and outfitters that offer a variety of experiences in areas around, and even in, the National Parks.

Yosemite used to have the Firefall, where every night glowing embers were pushed off a high cliff so visitors could watch them fall. And one of the meadows in the valley used to have rock concerts. Those have been gone a long time. Perhaps it's time for the other amusements to go as well.

What? They are a source of money? Oh well. Let's put in a water slide, some zip lines and a casino. Or would that be lunacy?

Doug HubbardHesperia

Funding trustees

The Board of Trustees of Victor Valley College has until the end of August to appoint someone to fill the vacancy left by Michael Krause. After that date, applicable law will force a special election that will cost the college (and taxpayers) upwards of $150,000.

So, what's the problem? Two trustees have committed themselves to appoint Joe Range and insist he is the only person who can help save the college from losing accreditation. This is the same Joe Range who, while serving as President of the Board of Trustees for many years, allowed the college to sink to a level that required sanctions from the California accrediting authority. This is the same Joe Range who came in last in a threeway race in the most recent election. This is the same Joe Range who received half of his campaign funds from the full-time teachers' union (CTA).

The CTA, Joe Range, Dennis Henderson and John Pinkerton are desperate to maintain majority control of the board to assure that the full-time teachers continue to receive favored treatment, even if it means the college loses accreditation. It has been said the teachers believe they will retain their compensation package whether or not the college is accredited.

I suspect that if a special election becomes necessary, the CTA will go all out and spend enormous amounts of cash to get Joe Range elected this time around.

If they can manage to keep the majority of voters from knowing the real situation by having Peter Allan and other surrogates make speeches saying everything is peachy OK, maybe he will have a better chance this time.

The CTA agents will have to overcome a much higher hurdle, though, because there are other amply qualified people waiting for the opportunity to serve, and others who have discovered the truth of the matter and are ready to step up and make it known very clearly that Joe Range is not the Lone Ranger with silver bullets.

Larry E. HooverSpring Valley Lake

Racial exploitation

Leave it to President Obama to exploit swelling racist sentiments to push his personal agenda on gun control. When the verdict of not guilty came down for George Zimmerman, the progressive left launched into its predictable display of outrage along with encouraging words from the usual sources in the media.

So President Obama, never one to miss an opportunity to turn a crisis to his advantage, said, "We should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. That the way to honor Trayvon Martin."

If the real goal is to prevent "tragedies like this," we need to stop pretending that a teen who said he wanted to put a whooping on someone the day before his death was just a innocent victim out to buy Skittles and a soda.

Obama is pushing his radical agenda and stoking the fires of racial hatred by allowing his Department of Justice to purse federal charges in a purely local case that has already been decided.

Bill RhodesApple Valley

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I'm now 77. I've served on jury duty off and on for nearly 50 years. To the best of my knowledge weapons are prohibited in court rooms except for sworn peace officers.

I mention this because juror B29 said that she felt that George Zimmerman was guilty of murder. If that's true then she was not compelled to vote with the rest of the panel. No one was "holding a gun to her head" forcing her to vote for acquittal. The worst that could have happened would be a mistrial being declared by the judge.

Unless things have changed, each juror or prospective swears to vote his/her conscience. My question for juror B29 is simple: What happened?

Roger NyeAdelanto

Not on the same page

It's pretty obvious that Angela Tambay ("Limiting opinion," Letters, July 25) is reading a different Daily Press from the one I read every day.

I see letters from various sides of the political spectrum, where evidently she sees only those with which she disagrees.

Letters from disgruntled liberal readers are regularly printed and do provide some measure of amusement for those of us with more realistic viewpoints. And of course there is always a solution to one's unhappiness with a news source; how about subscribing to another newspaper? Perhaps the "Daily Worker," if it's still around.

Unhappy readers such as Ms. Tambay need to expand their vision past the left lens of their glasses. There's a world of common sense out here.